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Health: Abortion

Zakay Law Group APLC and JCL Law Firm APC File Labor Class Action Against Matrix Providers Alleging Failure to Pay for All Time Worked

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Under California law, every employer shall pay to each employee, on the established payday for the period involved, not less than the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked in the payroll period, whether the remuneration is measured by time, piece, commission, or otherwise. Hours worked is defined in the applicable Wage Order as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer and includes all the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not required to do so.” Matrix Providers allegedly required its employees to perform work before and after their scheduled shifts, as well as during their off-duty meal breaks. The lawsuit alleges Matrix Providers failed to compensate its employees for any of the time spent under the employer’s control while working off-the-clock. As such, Matrix Providers allegedly failed to pay its employees the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked in a payroll period.

If you would like to know more about the Matrix Providers lawsuit, please contact Attorney Jackland Hom today by calling (619) 255-9047.

Zakay Law Group, APLC and JCL Law Firm, APC are labor and employment law firms with offices located in California that dedicate their practices to fighting for employees who have been wronged by their employers due to unfair employment practices. Contact one of their attorneys today if you need help with workplace issues regarding wage and hour, wrongful termination, retaliation, discrimination, and harassment.

-THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT (Rules Prof. Conduct, rule 7.2)-

Media Contact

Jackland Hom, Zakay Law Group, APLC, (619) 255-9047, [email protected], https://zakaylaw.com/

SOURCE Zakay Law Group, APLC

Health: Abortion

ASHA Joins Nonpartisan Coalition for Trust in Health & Science

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Nonprofit Works to Counter the Escalation of Mistrust and Distrust in Health Care, Public Health, and Science

ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) announced today that it has joined the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science, a non-partisan and non-profit undertaking for countering the escalation of mistrust and distrust in health care, public health, and science.

“ASHA has long advocated, practiced, and provided evidence-based decision-making, practice, and guidance,” ASHA 2023 President Robert M. Augustine, PhD, CCC-SLP, said. “We are pleased to be part of the Coalition. It shares our values and is dedicated to a very important cause. Having trust in health and scientific information is critical if the public is going to be properly guided and receive care that is safe, appropriate, needed, and deserved.”

“The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science is excited to welcome ASHA, and the expertise of its members to our increasingly important initiative,” said Reed Tuckson MD, a cofounder of the Coalition. According to Tuckson, the Coalition honors the many efforts underway that have similar goals, and it appreciates having the opportunity to foster a “big tent” approach to addressing misinformation and disinformation on a large scale, which the Coalition believes is necessary.

Launched a year ago, the Coalition’s goals include contributing to a measurable increase in public trust, and supporting the public to make evidence-based, personally appropriate health choices for themselves, their families, and the communities where they live.

Its convening committee includes representatives from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and Research!America. Members include more than eighty organizations that represent health care and health systems; public health and health policy; basic and applied science; pharmaceutical and device manufacturers; health care communicators; and philanthropy and foundations.

Through their memberships, each organization has access to the Coalition’s Compendium, a platform where they can fortify the Coalition’s impact through exchanges of ideas, developments, information, resources, and research findings, and the collaborative planning and implementation of activities.

“We look forward to working with fellow Coalition members to foster public prominence, acceptance, and accessibility to accurate, evidence-based health and scientific information,” Augustine said.

Learn more about the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science.

About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 228,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology assistants; and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) identify, assess, and treat speech, language, and swallowing disorders. http://www.asha.org

Media Contact

Joseph Cerquone, ASHA, 301-296-8732, [email protected], https://www.asha.org

SOURCE ASHA

Health: Abortion

Zakay Law Group APLC and JCL Law Firm APC File Class Action Against Navy Federal Credit Union Alleging Failure to Pay All Wages Due

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As a result of their rigorous work schedules, Navy Federal Credit Union’s employees were allegedly unable to take off duty meal breaks and were not fully relieved of duty for meal periods. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges employees were from time to time interrupted during their off-duty meal breaks to complete tasks for Navy Federal Credit Union. Employees were allegedly required to perform work as ordered by Navy Federal Credit Union for more than five (5) hours during a shift without receiving an off-duty meal break. Further, the lawsuit alleges Navy Federal Credit Union failed to provide employees with a second off-duty meal period each workday in which these employees were required by Navy Federal Credit Union to work ten (10) hours of work. Navy Federal Credit Union’s policy allegedly caused employees to remain on-call and on duty during what was supposed to be their off-duty meal periods. Employees therefore allegedly forfeited meal breaks without additional compensation and in accordance with Navy Federal Credit Union’s strict corporate policy and practice.

If you would like to know more about the Navy Federal Credit Union lawsuit, please contact Attorney Jackland Hom today by calling (619) 255-9047.

Zakay Law Group, APLC, and JCL Law Firm, APC are labor and employment law firms with offices located in California that dedicate their practices to fighting for employees who have been wronged by their employers due to unfair employment practices. Contact one of their attorneys today if you need help with workplace issues regarding wage and hour, wrongful termination, retaliation, discrimination, and harassment.

-THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT (Rules Prof. Conduct, rule 7.2)-

Media Contact

Jackland Hom, Zakay Law Group, APLC, (619) 255-9047, [email protected], https://zakaylaw.com/

SOURCE Zakay Law Group, APLC

Health: Abortion

Green Seal to Prohibit All PFAS in Certified Paints, Coatings and Floor Care Products

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Green Seal’s standards have long prohibited long-chain PFAS formally classified as hazardous. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that short-chain PFAS have the same harmful health and environmental effects as the legacy PFAS they are replacing. Green Seal will update its standards for paints and coatings, floor care products, adhesives, and degreasers to prohibit all approximately 12,000 chemicals in this class.

PFAS are frequently used as functional ingredients in these product categories. A recent study found that half of tested paint products contain PFAS, which may be used for glossiness, to reduce peeling, or for stain resistance or water repellency. Most acrylic and wax floor finishes on the market contain PFAS as leveling and wetting agents, and PFAS are also used to increase wettability in adhesives or the reduce flammability in cleaning and degreasing agents.

Green Seal’s proposed updates to its standards for these product categories follows the non-profit’s prohibition of all PFAS in certified cleaning and personal care products last year. Green Seal is taking a phased approach to implementing PFAS prohibitions to ensure its standards effectively address manufacturing and use considerations that vary by product category, including exposure pathways, functional performance, and regrettable substitutes.‥

“Both producers and buyers know the hazards of PFAS but lack reliable ways to ensure products are free of these toxic chemicals,” said Doug Gatlin, CEO of Green Seal. “Green Seal’s standard criteria will eliminate PFAS throughout the product formula supply chain while maintaining performance requirements, so buyers can choose safer, healthier, and effective products with confidence.”

In addition to its certification programs, Green Seal has partnered with material-health leader HPDC to become an approved preparer and third-party verifier of Health Product Declarations (HPDs). Whether or not a product is certified, Green Seal can prepare an HPD report for it to increase ingredient transparency while also maintaining critical trade secrets, and to assure that the product counts toward the LEED v4.1 Material Ingredient credit.

Learn more about Green Seal’s programs and initiatives at greenseal.org.

ABOUT GREEN SEAL

Green Seal® is a global nonprofit organization with a mission to make safer and more sustainable products the norm. For more than three decades, Green Seal has applied rigorous standards for health, environmental sustainability, and product performance to its certification programs to empower better purchasing decisions. Green Seal has certified thousands of products, services, and spaces from hundreds of leading companies and is specified by countless schools, government agencies, businesses, and institutions. Today, the Green Seal certification mark is a universal symbol that a product or service meets a high benchmark of health and environmental leadership. Visit greenseal.org or connect with Green Seal on X and LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Taryn Tuss, Green Seal, 202-872-6400, [email protected], https://greenseal.org 

SOURCE Green Seal



Health: Abortion

Identity Theft Resource Center Releases Report on Identity Crime in Black Communities Ahead of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023

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Among the findings:

  • Most participants were victimized by strangers (56 percent), but a large minority (40 percent) said they were victimized by someone they knew, with at least 13 percent being family members.
  • Revictimization was also prevalent in the three cities (83 percent in Atlanta and Chicago each; 86 percent in Philadelphia) where qualitative focus groups were conducted. For those who experienced financial loss, most lost at least $500.
  • Fifty-three (53) percent of participants across the focus groups expressed emotional and psychological impacts after becoming a victim, as well as challenges accessing financial accounts, securing tax returns, obtaining identity PINs and dealing with penalties for reporting identity fraud.

DOWNLOAD THE IDENTITY IN PRACTICE REPORT

“This research is an important step in gathering more data around identity theft victimization in Black communities,” said Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. “In 2018, when the ITRC identified a dramatic increase in the number of victims from Black communities contacting the Center for assistance and searched for existing research that might indicate why, there was none. That led to this multi-year, multi-phase study.

The findings in this report show that identity theft is a growing concern and that Black communities face distinct challenges. Action must be taken to reduce victimization, particularly repeat victimization, but it is also clear that Black communities need more support to adequately address the issues surfaced here.

We are eager for the next phase of this initiative so we can begin developing and testing specific identity crime materials and advice that will lead to meaningful change.”

Other findings in the report include the following:

  • Twenty-five (25) percent of identity theft cases remained unresolved, revealing the prevalence of identity theft incidents lacking closure. Only 11 percent of participants reported successfully resolving their issue with minimum barriers.
  • Of those who were a victim of an identity crime in the last five years, 25 percent were victimized during COVID-19.

Recommendations for the next steps highlighted in the research include:

  1. The need for comprehensive financial support and recovery mechanisms
  2. Educational awareness, like government workshops focused on credit and the integration of identity theft awareness into the K-12 curriculum
  3. Legal and regulatory measures such as higher penalties for identity crimes and identity verification for tax filing
  4. Support and empowerment, emphasizing spaces to share experiences and empathy from customer service representatives

This three-year initiative looks to develop culturally aware identity services in Black communities, including specific identity education and protection programs. The initiative is similar to a program previously funded by the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Victims of Crime that focused on developing identity protection programs for the blind/low vision and deaf/hard of hearing communities.

The ITRC is proud to release this report before Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023. Founded in 2004 and held each October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the world’s foremost initiative aimed at promoting cybersecurity awareness and best practices.

“The ITRC has been a supporter of Cybersecurity Awareness Month from the beginning,” Velasquez said. “We hope that releasing this report prior to Cybersecurity Awareness Month will help bring recognition to the lack of assistance programs around identity theft victimization that take into consideration the unique issues required to be effective in assisting Black communities.”

For Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023, the ITRC will also release its Q3 2023 Data Breach Analysis, which looks at the data breach findings from the third quarter of the year, and 2023 Business Impact Report, which analyzes the impacts of identity crimes and cyberattacks on small businesses.

Anyone who believes they are the victim of an identity crime can contact the ITRC toll-free by phone (888.400.5530) or live chat on the company website idtheftcenter.org.

About the Research

In the spring of 2023, the Black Researchers Collective (BRC) conducted six focus groups – two in each city – with people who both self-identified as Black and reported being a victim of an identity crime across three major cities in the Midwest, East Coast and the South. Across the focus groups, BRC met with a total of 55 participants, the average age of whom was 44 years old. Although the age profiles were fairly balanced across all three cities, most focus group participants (82 percent) were under the age of 55. The majority of participants who participated in the focus groups were cisgender women (71 percent), while 29 percent of participants were cisgender men. Most of the focus group participants (80 percent) had household incomes under $75,000, and over half (56 percent) made under $50,000 a year despite over half of the sample also being college-educated with degrees (53 percent). The majority of participants (71 percent) also experienced what BRC defined as compounding factors, meaning that in addition to being a victim of an identity crime, they were also experiencing one or more of the following factors while also experiencing victimization: recently justice-involved, recently homeless, recently housing insecure (moving more than two or more times in a calendar year; spend more than 35 percent of income on housing), or had at least one minor (dependent) in their household they care for.

About the Identity Theft Resource Center

Founded in 1999, the Identity Theft Resource Center® (ITRC) is a national nonprofit organization established to empower and guide consumers, victims, business and government to minimize risk and mitigate the impact of identity compromise and crime. Through public and private support, the ITRC provides no-cost victim assistance and consumer education through its website live chat idtheftcenter.org and toll-free phone number 888.400.5530. The ITRC also equips consumers and businesses with information about recent data breaches through its data breach tracking tool, notified. The ITRC offers help to specific populations, including the deaf/hard of hearing and blind/low vision communities.

Media Contact

Identity Theft Resource Center
Alex Achten
Director of Communications & Media Relations 
888.400.5530 Ext. 3611
[email protected]

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SOURCE Identity Theft Resource Center



Health: Abortion

Why Growers May Lose Herbicide Options Due to EPA’s Strategy for Endangered Species Act Compliance

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That’s prompted EPA to devise a “herbicide strategy” focused on conventional herbicides used in agriculture in the lower 48 states. Note that over half of the 1800 listed endangered and threatened species occur in Hawaii. EPA’s proposed herbicide strategy considers the potential impacts of agricultural herbicides to 400 listed plants and 500 listed animals that depend on plants. This strategy concerns WSSA because growers may lose herbicides and other crop protection products due to growers being unable to meet the EPA’s proposed ESA compliance requirements.

Growers need to be aware that the ESA prohibits a wide range of actions from:

  • Killing a member of an endangered or threatened species.
  • Altering the habitat of an endangered species in such a way that it affects its ability to eat or reproduce.

“If you have an endangered species in your state, county, or on your farm, the herbicide labels you used in the past will likely change,” says Bill Chism, WSSA ESA Committee Chair. “In some cases, growers in certain counties or areas could lose the use of one or more herbicides that they were able to use previously. The updated product labels could include new application timing requirements designed to reduce runoff, leaching, spray drift and other off-target impacts on threatened and endangered species and their critical habitats.”

Growers and land managers need to become familiar with how to access important application instructions online through EPA’s Bulletins Live! Two.

Mitigation Strategies
The two main ESA mitigation strategies are methods to reduce spray drift and herbicide run-off through erosion.

To reduce herbicide drift risks, applicators will need to:

  •     Incorporate downwind buffers
  •     Use a larger spray droplet size
  •     Use a maximum windspeed cutoff

To reduce the risk due to herbicide runoff or erosion, growers will need to incorporate multiple conservation practices such as:

  •     Contour farming
  •     Cover crops
  •     Terracing
  •     Mulching
  •     Residue and tillage management
  •     Grassed waterways
  •     Vegetative filter strips

Violations can result in either civil or criminal penalties. The ESA allows civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, and criminal penalties of up to $50,000 and one year in prison per violation. It is therefore important for farmers and landowners to be aware if a listed species is present on or near their property in order to avoid causing unlawful take or altering its critical habitat.

“EPA’s reregistration of Enlist One and Enlist Duo herbicides last year shows what is to come,” says Chism. “The updated product labels include new application timing requirements designed to reduce runoff, leaching, spray drift and other off-target impacts on threatened and endangered species and their critical habitats. These products can no longer be used in certain counties,” he adds.

Besides potentially losing herbicide options, the WSSA is concerned that some ESA mitigation strategies are impractical for certain farms or ranches. The WSSA urges growers to submit comments to EPA on the proposed ESA mitigation methods and how it will impact their operations. To submit comments, please visit: http://www.regulations.gov and type “EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0365” in the search box on top. There are a number of “Supporting & Related Material” files and a “Memorandum to Open Docket for Comment….” Comments can be submitted there. The deadline to comment is October 22, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

About the Weed Science Society of America
The Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit scientific society, was founded in 1956 to encourage and promote the development of knowledge concerning weeds and their impact on the environment. The Society promotes research, education and extension outreach activities related to weeds, provides science-based information to the public and policy makers, fosters awareness of weeds and their impact on managed and natural ecosystems, and promotes cooperation among weed science organizations across the nation and around the world. For more information, visit http://www.wssa.net.

Media Contact

Lee Van Wychen, Ph.D., National & Regional Weed Science Societies, 202-746-4686, [email protected], https://www.wssa.net/

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SOURCE National & Regional Weed Science Societies



Health: Abortion

Reaching 2 Million Learners Globally

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Tariq Fancy, [Founder/CEO], commented on the accomplishment, “Reaching 2 million learners isn’t just a number for us; it’s a testament to the impact digital education can have in building a future where every individual has a right to fulfill their innate potential regardless of their circumstances. The key to achieving this goal is not just being digital, but learner-centric: we meet learners where they are, with content that is short, concise, engaging, and authentic – exactly what learners themselves actually request and want to consume. This milestone showcases the strides we’re making towards that dream.”

The platform, learn.rumie.org, has curated an extensive library of learning resources, from basic literacy tools to advanced educational content. Its user-friendly interface and intuitive design have made it a go-to destination for learners, educators, and institutions worldwide.

A critical factor contributing to The Rumie Initiative’s success has been its collaboration with local communities, educators, and global partners. By understanding the unique needs of different communities and continuously refining its offerings, Rumie ensures its resources remain relevant, impactful, and culturally sensitive.

As The Rumie Initiative celebrates this major milestone, it remains firmly committed to its vision for the future. “While we celebrate this achievement, we know there’s much more to be done. Our mission is ongoing, and we are continuously innovating and expanding our reach to ensure every learner has access to the tools they need to succeed,” added Fancy.

For more information or to join the journey in democratizing global education, please visit learn.rumie.org.

About The Rumie Initiative

The Rumie Initiative is a non-profit organization that brings accessible digital educational resources to learners worldwide, particularly in underserved communities. Founded on the belief that education is a fundamental right, Rumie has been at the forefront of leveraging technology to make high-quality learning resources available to all.

Media Contact

Jennifer Ly, The Rumie Initiative, 1 4378865423, [email protected], rumie.org

SOURCE The Rumie Initiative

Health: Abortion

ARABIA SAUDITA DA A CONOCER A LOS PRINCIPALES LÍDERES TURÍSTICOS Y MINISTROS DE TODO EL MUNDO EN LA LISTA DE PONENTES POR EL DÍA MUNDIAL DEL TURISMO 2023

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Más de 500 funcionarios gubernamentales, líderes de la industria y expertos de 120 países aterrizarán en Riad para el evento, lo que convierte a la celebración de este año en el Día Mundial del Turismo mas importante e impactante en sus 43 años de historia. Entre los oradores se…